Game of the Week: Giants vs. Reds – May 17th

The San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds will meet for the first time this season for a four game series, starting on Thursday night at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The history between both clubs dates back to their first meeting on May 23, 1901 when the then New York Giants defeated the Cincinnati Reds 8-1. Since then the Giants have won 1119 of the 2059 games between the two teams. So far in 2015, both the Giants and the Reds are in third place in their respective divisions, with the Reds (15-16), seven games back of the first place St. Louis Cardinals (22-9), and the Giants (16-16) five games behind of the first place Los Angeles Dodgers (20-10).

Last Season

Giants:

In 2014, the Giants won the wild card with an 88-74 record and finished six games behind the first place Dodgers (94-68). San Francisco won their one-game Wild Card match-up against the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-0, to advance to the National League Divisional Series. They went up against the NL East Division winners, the Washington Nationals and took best of five series, 3-1. Next up was the National League Championship Series against the Cardinals and the Giants handily won and continued their surge in the post-season with a 4-1 series victory. The 2014 Wild Card winners then faced the Kansas City Royals, also winners of a Wild card position, and after an amazing seven game series, the Giants were crowned with their 11th World Championship.

Reds:

The Reds finished in fourth place in the National League Central Division in 2014 with a 76-86 record. In the previous three seasons, they have been on a downward spiral as the win totals have diminished year by year from 97 wins in 2012 and a first place finish, to 90 in 2013 and 76 in 2014. The Reds did draw 2,476,664 fans to Great American Ball Park in 2014, which was the second highest total since the days of the Big Red Machine, back in the late ‘70’s.

Managers

Giants:

Bruce Bochy, a nine-year catcher in the National League, became the manager of the Giants in 2007 after leading the San Diego Padres for the first 12 years of his managerial career. In those 12 seasons, he led the Padres to four first place finishes and one NL Pennant in 1998, but they would lose in the World Series to the New York Yankees. After taking over as the Giants skipper, it took four seasons until he turned the club into winners as they went on to win the 2010 World Series and first Championship in 56 years and the first for Bochy as a manager. The skipper led the Giants to two more crowns, one in 2012 and also last season. The last nine seasons with the Giants, including 2015, he is 683-645.

Reds:

Bryan Price took over as skipper for the Reds in 2014, after serving as pitching coach for the club as well as for the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks. As a former pitcher, he never made it to the majors, lasting just five seasons in the minors and rising as high as Triple-A. His last season playing professional baseball was in 1989, and he finished with a career 31-19 record and a 3.74 ERA. He took over a Reds club that finished 90-72 in 2013 and won the Wild Card, but didn’t advance past the first round and lost to the Pirates in the Wild Card game 6-2. In 2014, the Reds finished 76-86 and in fourth place under their new skipper and this season they completed an 11-11 April and so far in May they are 4-5 and losers of their last two of three series.

Key Additions/Subtractions

Giants:

After winning the 2014 World Series, the Giants went to work looking to improve their ball club and in December they traded for 3B Casey McGehee from the Miami Marlins for minor leaguers RHP Kendry Flores and RHP Luis Castillo. In looking to keep their championship team intact, they resigned closer Sergio Romo, RHP Jake Peavy and RHP Ryan Vogelsong. They also signed Free Agent left fielder Nori Aoki and lost Hunter Pence during Spring Training after he fractured his left forearm. The good news is Pence started a rehab assignment with the Sacramento River Cars on May 8th.

Right handed pitcher Kyle Crick, was selected by the Giants in the 1st round (49th overall) of the 2011 MLB June Amateur draft out of Sherman High School in Sherman Texas. After starting in Rookie ball that year, he has traveled through the system making stops in Class-A Full Season and also Class-A Advanced. The past two seasons he has played with the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels, posting a 6-7 record in 2014, with a 3.80 ERA in 22 starts and so far in 2015, he is 0-1, with a 1.50 ERA in four starts.

Reds:

Right handed pitcher Robert Stephenson, was elected by the Reds in the 1st round (27th overall) of the 2011 MLB June Amateur draft out of Alhambra High School in Martinez, CA. Stephenson started out in Rookie ball in 2012 and has made stops in Class-A Full Season as well as Class-A Advanced before settling with Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos the last three seasons. Overall, he is 17-25 in four minor league seasons, which includes an 0-4 record in five starts, with a 6.85 ERA so far in 2015.

David is the Founder and Executive Editor of Legends On Deck®. He was a Senior Editor for MetsMerizedOnline, MetsMinors.net and Contributor for Hardballchat.com. David's idea forLegends on Deck is to be a site where passionate fans of the game have a place to read about their favorite baseball teams. The site is also for people who had a talent to write or even take photographs and have the platform to share. The passion of following the Minor Leagues can be seen all over the site as the players journey's are what what drives the LOD team to share their content. David's passion is making available a site that people can have fun sharing and reading.